Love By Chance
by Lily Martin
Summary: Alyssa moved to Smallville a year ago, opened a print shop, and never expected the best thing in her life to walk through the doors only six months after her fiancée dies in a freak accident. Lex was banished to cow town one year ago.yada yada yada, whil


Love by Chance

**By** Test of Faith

**Rated**: R

**Prologue**

**Disclaimer**: Smallville does not, nor has never belonged to me, this is obvious because if I did own it, Lex would easily own the world and would never go bad. Also I don't own Money, Money, Money from Abba, Abba owns that one people.

**Pairing:** Lex/OC Clark/? (Lana or Chloe, still haven't decided)

**Spoilers: **season premiere, but Lionel comes to live with Lex that summer, before the whole bad marriage with what's-her-face (don't tell me I already know and want to forget…poor Lex)

**Summary**: lets wait a couple chapters for me to really start telling what's going on…mostly Alyssa moved to Smallville a year ago, opened a print shop, and never expected the best thing in her life to walk through the doors only six months after her fiancée dies in a freak accident. Lex was banished to cow town one year ago…yada yada yada, while planning a company picnic he walks into a print shop, and his whole life is changed bye chance of fate.

"Driving gloves? He was wearing driving gloves?" a girl with rainbow dyed hair pulled into a messy bun laughed into the phone receiver, meanwhile she reached towards the speaker controls and turned up the stereo.

*I work all night, I work all day

To pay the bills I have to pay

Ain't it sad

*And still there never seems to be 

A single penny left for me

That's too bad*

At that moment Lex was walking into the print shop, tucking his own driving gloves into his pocket, he slowly approached the counter where the girl sat talking on the phone, quickly typing things into the computer in front of her.

*In my dreams, I have a plan

If I got me a wealthy man

I wouldn't have to work at all

I'd fool around and have a ball*

"Come on, how freakish can you get?" she giggled, slipping a piece of paper for Lex to fill out to him, along with a pen.

*Money, money, money

Must be funny

In the rich man's world

Money, money, money

Always sunny

In the rich man's world*

"I mean they'd be totally wicked, 'cept he drives a hatchback, so he doesn't need the gloves," she said before pausing a second. "It's Abba, Money, Money, Money…Whatever, _I _think the old ones are actually pretty good, so if you've got a prob, you can…well…you know…whatever."

*Ah-ha-ha

All the things I could do

*If I had a little money

It's a rich man's world*

"I gotta go," she stated. "Some people actually have to work."

*It's a rich man's world*

"'Bye," she said before hanging up.

*A man like that's hard to find

But I can't get him off my mind

Ain't it sad

*And if he happens to be free

I bet he wouldn't fancy me

That's too bad*

"So, what kinda print job you lookin' for?" she suddenly asked Lex, after straightening up a few papers in front of her. "You don't have a problem with the music, do you?"

*So I must leave, I'll have to go

To Los Vegas or Monaco

And win a fortune in a game

My life will never be the same*

"Huh?" Lex mumbled looking from the form she'd handed him. "No, no problem."

*Money, money, money

Must be funny

In the rich man's world

Money, money, money

Always sunny

In the rich man's world*

"Mm, just checking, some people find it annoying," she smiled. Then motioning towards a door behind her, "Mostly just Mitch in the back, though."

*Ah-ha-ha

All the things I could do

*If I had a little money

It's a rich man's world*

_Such an ironic song, how nice_. Lex thought sarcastically.

*Money, money, money

Must be funny

In the rich man's world

Money, money, money

Always sunny

In the rich man's world*

"You want the big banner, ok," she said more to herself looking over the paper after he'd finished, as she turned the speakers down. Calling over her shoulder, she asked, "Hey Mitch, what time is it?"

*Ah-ha-ha

All the things I could do

*If I had a little money

It's a rich man's world*

"You gotta go in ten minutes, Lyss," a girl called from the back.

*It's a rich man's world*

"Thanks," she called back. Then, to Lex, she asked, "How soon do you need this?"

"One week," he told her.

"Great, I can get it to you tomorrow, I'd get it done today, but it takes an hour, and Mitch doesn't know how to use the machine," she explained, just as the phone started to ring. Picking it up, she said, "Harding Prints, Alyssa Harding speaking, how can I help you?…Ah, Tom, is my car ready? I got class in like forty-five minuets…it won't be done till tomorrow? You said it'd be done today, I need it in like now…_great, yeah_, I'm _so_ not paying for the extra day of work…I could have gotten this done in Metropolis in under a day…yeah, I would have paid extra for towing, if it meant I'd get my car back on schedule…"

With that she slammed the phone back on the base, more than slightly frustrated.

"Sorry 'bout that. Okay, I'll have that banner ready tomorrow, you can come by and pick it up any time in the afternoon, till then, if you have any questions, you can ask Mitch, she should be stranded here for a while, till I get back with her car," Alyssa laughed.

"Not happening," Mitch said coming into the main room of the print shop, shuffling through a small stack of envelopes, her short, curly, carrot red hair bouncing with every step. "Doug's big thing is tonight."

"Shit," Alyssa cursed, slinging her shoulder backpack over her shoulder.

"What about Martha Kent? She said if you ever needed a ride," Mitch reminded her.

"She doesn't have class on Fridays," Alyssa said.

"Where are your classes?" Lex asked, feeling a moment of generosity, and an excuse not to go back home to where his father would no doubt be.

"Leesburg, why?"

"I could give you a ride," he offered, feeling a moment of kindness run through himself, also the fact that he really, really, really didn't want to go home to find his dad still there.

"No, you can't do that," she said shaking her head as Mitch disappeared back into the back room, totally giving up on her friend, the huge stack of mail now in Alyssa's hands.

"Now that's not something I hear very often," Lex joked with a smirk. "I have more than enough time to-"

"One minutes, Lyssa," Mitch called.

"All right, fine," Alyssa gave in, her face scrunching as though she were thinking really hard about this, before her face went back to normal, and she grabbed her navy-blue pea-coat off the coat tree, and her cell phone from the counter.

"Don't forget to stop by the bank," Mitch reminded from the back, hearing the door open.

"Can't you do it?" Alyssa called back.

"They're your bills and your checks, nothing to do with me, _duh!" Mitch yelled._

_"UGH!"_

"We'll stop on the way," Lex assured her. "I need to stop by the bank anyways."

"Here's your notebook, your research, your paper, and miscellaneous papers," Mitch said dropping a large stack of papers in Alyssa's hands at the last moment. "Are you ever going to move the regular printer up front?"

"No, you collate," she grinned.

_She's cute,_ Lex thought, his face showing nothing that was running through his mind, as she followed him to his car and he opened the door for her.

"You can't do this," she told him again a few seconds later as they drove to the Smallville Bank.

"I am, aren't I?" he answered, unsuccessfully, trying to hold back a smirk.

She didn't notice the look; she was going through her mail. Lex glanced over and saw an envelope with the LuthorCorp Logo in the return address corner, without even really looking at it she set it aside with a few other envelopes. Her attention went fully to the brown package underneath it. Lex noted that there wasn't any return address.

As if on cue, the moment she'd opened the package, a small black cell phone that fell on her lap started ringing.

"Hello?" she answered softly, her voice kind and unsuspecting till she realized who it was, then she had to fight to control her voice. "_Dad_, I _have a cell, and _you_ have the number. I do not want nor can afford another one…you know what I do with those checks every month? Their sitting in a drawer taking up space…Look I'm on my way to class. I don't have time for this…yes, my car is __still in the shop….No! You are _not_ sending Hugh…I _don't care_ what his name is, you're not sending him to fix my car!!!"_

Before anything else could be said, she hung up the phone, turned it off, and tucked it away in her purse, muttering something about running it over as soon as she got her car back.

"_UGH!!!_ Sorry 'bout that, my dad sill thinks he can run my life," she said with a weak laugh as the car came to a stop in front of the bank.

"Mm, I know what that's like," Lex commented loosely as they both got out of the car and headed into the bank.

The run to the bank was quick, and soon they were well on their way. Much of the trip, she spent jotting down information from various letters from various companies and people into a small black book that was already quite filled with numbers and such.

"So, what time does you're class end?" Lex asked fifteen minutes into the drive, glancing from the road over to her for a moment.

"Seven-thirty," she answered looking up. "I was thinking afterwards, I'd take you to dinner…as…a thank you."

"You don't have to do that," he told her.

"You don't have to be driving me an hours ride to Leesburg," she laughed.

"Of course I do," he answered, throwing in one of his own patented laughs, trying to keep his eyes on the road instead of her.

"Why? Why are you giving me a ride so far out of your way? What's _your_ ulterior motive?" she asked him.

"I just don't feel like going home yet," he confessed.

"What, caught in a disturbingly unhappy marriage for someone your age?" she asked, the way she asked it, her tone, everything, made him half wonder if she were serious or not.

"Luckily not, no my dad has decided that now's the time for some father-son bonding time," he revealed, unsure exactly why he was telling her this. "What about you, are you stuck in a bad marriage?"

"Oh, no, I'm single, don't really have much time for anything else," she answered sounding as though she didn't really want to talk about it. then doing a complete attitude 180, she laughed again, and said with a half smile, "I'm sorry, I just realized, I haven't properly introduced myself. My name's Alyssa Harding, please, call me Lyssa, everyone else does."

"Alright then, Lyssa, you can call me Lex," he told her, finding himself wondering for a second what he could do to make her laugh again.

"You don't mind do you?" she asked holding up her cell phone, the front plate was painted electric blue and set with rhinestones, or what Lex guessed was rhinestones, he didn't get a close enough look to be sure of it.

"Not at all."

"Hey, Aaron, you done with play practice already?" she asked after someone had answered a few seconds later. "Cool…yeah, I'm gonna be late getting back after class, ok? You have cash, right…order some sushi, I'll reimburse you…see dinner problem solved…don't forget to feed Fluffers, ok…Bye."

She was quiet for a moment and then laughed.

"I'll need to pick up something for Fluffers," she smiled. "Knowing Aaron, he'll get watching a movie and forget there's even a cat sitting next to him."

"Even after you just reminded him?" Lex asked.

"Mostly because I just reminded him, he might give her a piece of sushi, but past that, he'll totally forget," she was still smiling, the thought passed through his mind that he didn't want her to stop smiling, he wasn't sure where it'd come from, but nonetheless it was there.

"So, what class are you taking?"

"Oh, a class on Law."

"Which one? I took some classes on law, I might have taken it myself."

"It's a class on case studies for big business practice."

"Studying to be a lawyer?"

"I think, I'm not positive that's the direction I want to go, I majored in Law at Metropolis U."

"I graduated from MU a couple years ago, majored in business, obviously."

"So did I, we were probably in the same class."

"I'm surprised, I don't think I met you."

"Probably not, I lived off campus," she answered as they pulled into the parking lot of the old college. Then, grabbing her stuff and climbing out of the car, she said with a soft smile, "Thanks for the ride."

"Seven-thirty?" he said questioningly.

"Yeah, thanks again," and with those final words she was already on her way up the front steps joining a small group as they made their way in talking and laughing.

TBC…


End file.
